UFC 129: St. Pierre Vs. Shields Sold Out With 55,000 Fans and $11 Million Gate

UFC 129 will take place from the Rogers Centre in Toronto, ON. Canada and is headlined by longtime welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre defending against Jake Shields.

The historic fight card will mark the organization's inaugural stadium event and with St. Pierre headlining the card, a sellout was inevitable.

Minutes after tickets were made available to the public, the April 30 event was completely sold out as fans purchased 55,000 tickets to view title fights between St. Pierre and Shields and Jose Aldo versus feather challenger, Mark Hominick.

UFC 126 was completely sold out and the organization had to open closed circuit viewing for fans, UFC 127 in Australia is also sold out, and according to the UFC, their event (UFC 128) next month in New Jersey is currently tracking for a sellout.

The success the company and sport has seen thus far in 2011 is phenomenal and UFC 129 has shattered all previous attendance records. UFC 124 in Montreal had 24,000 fans view the event live and five pay-per-view events later, Dana White and company will surpass that record by 31,000 fans.

Earlier today, White and Director of Canadian Operations Tom Wright both took part in a media conference call to discuss the success of UFC 129.

White has long said that he refuses to sacrifice the quality of the fan experience just to sell tickets and by the views from the seating chart for the event, the UFC has been successful in maintaining that and the UFC President is excited with the result.

Having sold the aforementioned total of 55,000 seats, White and company will do an $11 million gate on April 30.

With that being said, the organization's success was tremendous in 2010, and three months into the new year, Mixed Martial Arts is primed for its largest year in the history of the sport and White believes the sport will be the biggest in the world.

“I've been saying it for a long time," White said, "we're gonna be the biggest sport in the world and now, maybe people don't think I'm nuts anymore."